Happy Xmas + 1 I was going to wait until after the 1st of the year to post a new thread but I have some down time (to continue to harrass you guys with ) and thought some of you may enjoy a few C-47's. Hope you all had a nice day yesterday. I've cleaned these guys up as best I dare with photoshop and labeled with as much info as I have. Source SDASM, USAF archives.

Just reviewed the posts and sorry but many of the photos just couldn't be cleaned up better. A lot of fuzzy and faded images

Part 1 of 6

Douglas C-33

Douglas R4D-4 NATS 2-star Admiral command plane from the Naval Air Transport Service at Oakland on April 9 1946

Good stuff again - I'd like to know more about the postwar shots of the glider (CG-15? And why the long pod atop its cabin?) being towed right on the C-47's tail, and especially the Culver drone (edit: It's a survivor - N999ML at the EAA Museum!) stuck on the C-47's wingtip.

Good stuff again - I'd like to know more about the postwar shots of the glider (CG-15? And why the long pod atop its cabin?) being towed right on the C-47's tail, and especially the Culver drone (edit: It's a survivor - N999ML at the EAA Museum!) stuck on the C-47's wingtip.

The initial tests for project TipTow used the CULVER and C-47, this eventually leading up to project TomTom using 2 F-84's and a B-29 (and a B-36) in an attempt to have the bomber forces tow their protection into attacks on the Soviets. Far from sucessful, several accidents and the last try was the Xf-85/RF-F-84 FICON program. A long, twisted, and expensive part of post WW2 strategery that resulted in serious lessons learned and the sound of a huge toilet full of money being flushed.

Chris,I think that the fairing on the top of the CG-15 glider in rigid tow might be a camera housing for the rigid tow bar tests.There are pictures of apparently the same CG-15 being towed by a C-46 in this link

I also found a document on the tests using a C-82 and a CG-15 with the rigid tow bar.The document is from 1952 and it states that the system was copied from a Luftwaffe tow bar.Here's a link to the document.

The Luftwaffe experimented with towed to intercept point Blohm and Voss BV-40 armed gliders (that resembled the crate a Schweitzer 2-32 was shipped in) with a prone pilot and 2 X 30mm cannons that used a short, rigid tow bar. They also did basically the same thing with towed aerial bombs behind fighters where the bomb was too big to be lifted in a conventional manner under a Bf-109.The USAAF also looked into a rigid towbar setup for a proposed tailess, reverse swept wing multi thousand gallon flying piloted fuel supply bowser the Cornelius XFG-1, which if memory serves was made of plywood, two built and tesed but project abandoned after WW2

So-o-o-o-o-o-o Close! I've been looking for pics of 42-100985, and you have a pic of 42-100989!

42-100985 was sold surplus to Capital Airlines in February 1946, where it was registered NC88835 (later N88835), flew as the "Capitaliner Pittsburgh" before being relegated to a training role. It crashed on June 22, 1957 near Clarksburg, Maryland, killing its crew of three and very narrowly missing (by 15 feet) a house which had a mother and her three kids inside, while the father was outside and "hit the deck" to avoid being hit by the plane and debris. I've done a lot of research on this crash for the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission, who now owns the land where the plane crashed and am preparing a final report / article to submit to the park historians. I'd love to find a pic of the plane in her AAF livery.

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